ISLAMIC ART ALBUM – SECOND GEOMETRIC PATTERN
This is pattern B1 from Samira Mian’s collection of 6-fold patterns. For further information about this, please see my earlier post. This is the layout for Pattern B1.
As before, the basic pattern repeat (on the small piece of tracing paper on the left) looks pretty uninspiring and just looking at it, I couldn’t visualise how the pattern would come out. The Big Reveal is a bit like those magic painting books we used to have as children. The page looked nondescript and a bit grey, but run a wet brush over it, and the picture would emerge, in full colour. I always loved doing those.
This photo shows how I have used the tracing of the pattern repeat to create a full A5 sheet of the pattern. The little crosses at the corners of the pattern repeat are there to line up the pattern as you move the template across to draw the next one. I used my light panel to achieve this. If you look carefully at the larger sheet you can see a tiny dot in the centre of some of the central stars – this is where each cross appeared on the pattern repeat piece.
This pattern has a central six-pointed star surrounded by alternating shield and bow tie shapes.
Here is the tracing ready to be transferred. You can see that I have doubled up the lines, and worked the “overs and unders” of the woven pattern.
The tracing burnished onto the page. As before, I have not gone to the edges of the design, but kept the outline soft.
Finally, painting the design.
I struggled for a long time trying to decide on a colour scheme for this one, and in the end decided on gold gouache for the stars, a very dark blue for the shield and bow tie shapes, and orange for the interlacing pattern. After re-outlining the shapes, it needs a little touching up here and there, but essentially it is finished. I am not entirely happy with my choice of colours for this one but wanted something bold and a bit different. When I decide on the colour scheme for the facing page, I shall be careful to choose something that contrasts and co-ordinates with this one, which I think will improve it. Unfortunately the gold of the stars doesn’t show up terribly well in the photo, but just looks yellow.
I am planning on doing one more six-fold design in this signature, and a large complete design for the centrefold, probably taken from my Alhambra Palace or Alcazar books . The final pages will have designs consisting of eight- or different-fold designs for variety, with increasing complexity.
